Hateful Love

Chapter Fifty-Five

          She’s staring down at his bruised knuckles.

          Alecto’s got this curious expression on her face, like she’s clearly thinking very, very hard about something. I can see Draco’s noticed, and he’s desperately trying to act like nothing’s wrong by writing the answers as fast as he can. There’s nothing either of us can do as Alecto tries to put two and two together: the bruises on Draco’s knuckles and the cuts on Amycus’s face.

          But then she gives a small shake of her head and walks on to the next table without a word.

          As she walks away from Draco’s desk, I realize I’ve been holding my breath without knowing it for the second time this class. I let out the air shakily, blinking hard and trying to get my heart rate back down to normal. Thank god Alecto didn’t realize what happened.

          The rest of class passes by uneventfully, and Alecto never looks at Draco curiously again. Cho eventually works up the courage to ask where Amycus is—a question we’d all been wondering—and I feel relieved when Alecto tells us he had to grade some papers this period. Here I was thinking the charm had gone wrong and Amycus had forgotten too much.

When the bell rings, we all gratefully put our things away and line up at the door. Alecto leads us down to the Great Hall for lunch, and it seems like things are back to normal. I actually feel like smiling for the first time in what must be months—finally something’s gone right for Draco and me.

Cho and I head over to the Ravenclaw table and sit down across from Katherine and, oddly enough, Ginny. The two of them are whispering furiously, and as soon as we sit down, Katherine leans close and says, “We’ve got a problem.”

My heart sinks. Just when I thought things were going okay… “What’s happened?”

“Neville got a detention this morning,” Katherine answers quickly. “Amycus is making him go into the ForbiddenForest alone tonight to get twenty Death-Cap mushrooms.”

“You’re shitting me,” Cho exclaims, dropping her fork and scattering pieces of the salad all over the table. “What did he do to make Carrow give him that bad of a punishment?”

Katherine looks like she’s desperately trying to hold back a smile as she replies, “Amycus came into Neville’s Potions class first period to talk with Slughorn, and apparently Neville’s cauldron tipped over at the wrong time…let’s just say Amycus needs new shoes.”

Cho lets out a loud snort and I burst into a fit of giggles, imagining Amycus hopping around with Neville’s potion getting all over his shoes. But then we both remember how bad his detention is and abruptly stop laughing.

“He can’t go out there all by himself,” I say, pushing my laughter back down. “The Forest is dangerous, everyone knows that.”

“That’s what we said,” Katherine agrees. “Neville knows it too, so Ginny came up with a plan—you’ve got to hear it.”

This can’t be good. I bite my lip, remembering the last time I was part of a “plan”. But I keep quiet and look at Ginny expectantly when Cho asks what it is.

“Well, he’s got to be out there by eleven,” Ginny says, speaking up for the first time. Cho and I have to lean closer in order to hear her. “Amycus doesn’t care when he comes back, just that he gets enough mushrooms for the Potions supply closet by morning. Even Neville is admitting that’s impossible; those mushrooms are pretty rare, and finding them at night is hard. So…we were thinking that the four of us could sneak out and help.”

I don’t say anything. Cho is automatically nodding beside me, but I’m way too reluctant to agree so easily. I just barely got away with being out after curfew, and I promised Draco I would stay out of trouble with the Carrows. Doing something like this will be even more risky than meeting Draco in the Room of Requirement—and that’s saying something.

“Cassie, I knew you weren’t going to like it,” Katherine says, watching me carefully. “But this is Neville we’re talking about. You and I both know he can’t do this on his own. And what if he comes across a werewolf or something? We’ve got to help him, you know it’s the right thing to do.”

“Look, I want to help him. I do. But I just don’t want to get caught by the Carrows again,” I reply slowly, referring to the time the Carrows found us trying to help the first year. “Remember how bad it was? This would be ten times worse.”

“Come on, Cassie,” Cho says seriously. “You said it yourself, the forest is dangerous. There’s a chance that Neville could actually die—I think the Cruciatus curse is worth saving his life.”

I finger the edge of my plate nervously, feeling all three of their eyes on me as I desperately try to think of what to do. If Draco hadn’t told me to be careful with breaking the rules, I would help Neville in an instant. What if I don’t go and something bad happens to Neville? I’d never forgive myself, knowing I could have easily done something to help.

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to, Cassie,” Ginny says, watching me carefully. “I just think Neville could use the extra help. But if you’re worried about the Carrows, you don’t have to come. We aren’t forcing you.”

After a long moment, I let out a sigh. “…no, of course I’ll help.”

The three of them smile broadly at me and Cho pats my hand happily. Katherine reaches for a piece of bread and butter, saying excitedly, “Great! This will be the most fun we’ve had in months, sadly enough…”

Ginny laughs and starts telling us when and where to meet up. I listen closely, silently praying the whole time that I won’t end up regretting this.

I didn’t know then that I would regret it. I didn’t know what was going to happen, who was going to get hurt. Because if I did, I would have made everyone stay inside the castle, even Neville. I never would have let any of us step foot into the ForbiddenForest.

But I didn’t know. I didn’t know anything.